A congressional report found Blackwater personnel were involved in almost 200 shootings in Iraq between 2005 and 2007. In addition to having been accused of shooting many Iraqi civilians while in Iraq, the company earned more than $1 billion.

Using private security contractors has the potential to jeopardize the status of U.S. operations abroad, can put American lives at risk, and may cut against the very foreign policy goals our missions and embassies are seeking to achieve. They must be subject to oversight.

If policymakers were to spend time listening to contractors on the ground they would learn that some of the operating procedures that onlookers assume are standard are, in fact, the source of great debate and controversy.

Outsourcing has become an integral part of modern DoD operations. For the Pentagon to better compete it must increasingly operate like a transnational corporation. To do so it has adopted the corporate strategies of rightsizing, outsourcing, and offshoring.